Ryan Reynolds has confirmed his interest in purchasing National Hockey League side, Ottawa Senators.
The Canadian movie star spoke about possibly taking over the NHL club on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Reynolds is currently looking to form a consortium in order for him to buy the NHL franchise — which was recently put up for sale by the late Eugene Melnyk’s daughter’s Olivia and Anna.
“I am trying to (buy the Senators), it’s very expensive, so I need a partner with really deep pockets,” Reynolds said. “It’s called a consortium, when you form a group to buy an entity, and it’s such a fancy way of saying, ‘I need a sugar mommy or a sugar daddy,’ and if that doesn’t happen I’ll buy a U.S. senator which everyone can afford.”
Reynolds is already co-owner of the Welsh soccer club Wrexham with fellow actor Rob McElhenney.
Forbes magazine currently values the Senators at US$525 million and the Melnyk estate has made it clear that the team will only be sold if the purchaser agrees to keep the team in Ottawa.
Reynolds is from Vancouver but expressed his love for Ottawa, a city he knows well, on the Tonight Show set.
“I grew up in Vancouver but I also grew up in Ottawa and I spent a long time in Vanier, which is a little town right outside Ottawa,” Reynolds told Fallon.
“Wrexham has consumed half my life and then the other half might be consumed by something like (the Senators),” Reynolds said. “I figured my kids, they got it now, they can do it their own from this point forward. It’s just a Dad-sized hole in the wall.”
